Research Report: Mobile and Wireless

More than half of agency managers say their employees can’t do their jobs effectively without their mobile devices. This is but one of the stunning findings in a new study of government employees' use of smart phones, tablets, laptops and other devices by the 1105 Government Information Group. The survey of 243 government officials and subsequent interviews with leading government mobility experts provide a wealth of detail about how mobile devices are being used, how agencies want to use them in the future, how budgets are likely to grow and how deployment challenges such as security can be resolved.

As more and more government departments allow or even encourage employees to use smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices to perform their jobs in or out of the office, everyone involved is beginning to see just how beneficial they are. More than half of the survey respondents agree that employees cannot do their jobs effectively without using their mobile devices. Read More Here

The benefits of moving to a mobile app environment are clear: It provides easy, fast universal access to whatever device an employee chooses to use and whatever location the employee is in. Agencies have full control over access. Employees using apps become more productive, business processes become more efficient, and decision-making becomes more accurate. Access will soar within two years. Read More Here

More than half of mobile device operators in government use tablets, 89 percent use smart phones, and 64 percent use notebooks. What's more, tablet use in government is expected to grow quickly over the next few years, in large part because of the devices' versatility and lower cost. Read More Here

To date, few government agencies have adopted the "bring your own device" approach, though several don’t bar employees from using their own smart phone or tablet. Most survey respondents indicated that their agencies provide devices to employees; just 12 percent of the respondents encourage a BYOD program. However, there is strong interest within the federal government for implementing BYOD. Read More Here

Although mobility is the key to productivity and potential cost savings in government, several challenges have slowed mobile device adoption. Six out of 10 survey respondents were “very concerned” about security risks related to employee use of mobile and wireless technologies. In addition, cost, lack of regulatory compliance and IT integration are also serious concerns. Read More Here